To encourage digital modes of booking, the government of India has waived off the service charges on train tickets booked online till June 30th. Earlier the exemption facility was effective from November 23th, 2016 to March 31st, 2017, but now it got extended further to June 30th, 2017, as told by a senior Railway Ministry official.
The exemption has been done to help passengers and also to incentivise payments which were made through the digital modes for booking of reserved train tickets. The railway officials have already received instructions from the Ministry of Information and Technology where they have advised the public transporter to extend the incentives at least till June 30th.
According to railways data, INR 184 crore has not been realised from passengers on account of service charge and service tax thereon on reserved tickets booked online from November 23th, 2016 to February 28th, 2017.
The service charges on online booking of train tickets through IRCTC ranges from INR 20 to 40 per ticket.
